LCA: Paper

The Life Cycle Assessment can be broke down into four different categories: material production, product manufacturing, product use, and product disposal. At each category there will always be a recourse put in and recourses that become waste or emissions. To demonstrate the understanding of the process of the LCA, I will use paper as an example. First (material production), to make paper you must start with wood which comes from trees for this to happen you must have the proper equipment and workers to cut the trees into the suitable size. This will require travel into the woods with all the necessary equipment to cut, breakdown, and haul the wood. From there the wood will be hauled out of the woods to a paper mill (product manufacturing) where the wood will be made into paper. In order for this to happen the factory will need to have the proper machinery, recourses and labor to assemble the paper. Once the wood is made into paper it can then be shipped off to a wide variety of places and used for a multitude of reasons (product use).  In order for this product to be used it will have to be transported from the factory to its destination for example a school. Once the paper has been used and is no longer needed it can be thrown into the trash or recycled (product disposal). Which will require transportation to the landfill or to the recycling center and labor to do so. All of these steps require different recourses and cause different emissions.